Your credit cards and mobile won’t work here, but you’ll see a Buddhist culture that remains largely untouched — just get there soon

At dusk we sat on the monastery steps watching young monks fool about with
firecrackers. One shaven-headed boy would spy another quietly sweeping
leaves, creep up behind him, lob a banger, then flee squealing in a whirl of
maroon robes.

My sons, just a few years older than these novices, chuckled and looked on
enviously. No tiresome stand-well-back safety code here. No prospect of
sleep either, it seemed. We had trekked all day through Burma’s fecund Shan
hills to stay in this ancient place. But we could forget meditative peace
since we’d arrived for the full-moon festival, the biggest and